Harness the horses; mount the steeds; take your positions with helmets on! Polish your spears; put on armor!
Parallel translations
- WEB Harness the horses, and get up, you horsemen, and stand up with your helmets. Polish the spears, put on the coats of mail.
- KJV Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines.
- NKJV Harness the horses, And mount up, you horsemen! Stand forth with your helmets, Polish the spears, Put on the armor!
- NASB “Harness the horses, And mount the steeds, Take your stand with helmets on! Polish the spears, Put on the coats of armor!
- NLT Harness the horses, and mount the stallions. Take your positions. Put on your helmets. Sharpen your spears, and prepare your armor.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The poem continues mustering horses, horsemen, helmets, polished spears, and armor for war. Egypt readies its full strength for the fight.
Overview
The detailed call to harness horses and don armor depicts Egypt's confident, well-equipped army preparing for combat. The vivid commands build tension before the sudden reversal that follows. The futility of this elaborate readiness against God's purpose teaches that human strength, however impressive, cannot secure victory apart from the Lord, whose salvation comes through Christ rather than chariots.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ezek 21:9–11“Son of man, prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord says: ‘A sword, a sword, sharpened and polished—
- Jer 51:3Do not let the archer bend his bow or put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; devote all her army to destruction!
- Neh 4:16And from that day on, half of my servants did the work while the other half held spears, shields, bows, and armor. The officers stationed themselves behind all the people of Judah
- 2 Chr 26:14Uzziah supplied the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, and slingstones.
- 1 Sam 17:38Then Saul clothed David in his own tunic, put a bronze helmet on his head, and dressed him in armor.
- 1 Sam 17:5and he had a bronze helmet on his head. He wore a bronze coat of mail weighing five thousand shekels,
- Ezek 21:28Now prophesy, son of man, and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says concerning the Ammonites and their contempt: ‘A sword! A sword is drawn for slaughter, polished to consume, to flash like lightning—
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 46:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.